Matt Hinton/The Times-PicayuneDorothy Bailey, the aunt of Fitzgerald Phillips, places a bear that says "I Love You" for Calyisse Perkins and Fitzgerald Phillips April 26, 2009, before a prayer rally at Fig and Broadway where the couple was found shot to death on Monday April 20, 2009.Gregory Vincent, Jr., 34, is charged with the second-degree murders of Fitzgerald Phillips and Calyisse Perkins, both 19, who were taken hostage by gunmen from Perkins' Algiers apartment in the middle of the night in April 2009.

Vincent is one of three men charged in connection with the double homicide that shocked the area when police released details that showed the couple were first kidnapped, robbed and ransomed to relatives before being shot to death.

Kenneth Barnes, 24, is charged with capital murder and awaiting trial, while Layman Foster, 24, awaits his own trial on two counts of second-degree murder.

All three will have separate trials because Vincent made a statement to police implicating all three in the lethal plot.

Phillips was a student at Southern University at New Orleans, and his girlfriend Perkins was a literacy tutor. They were last seen alive near Gert Town after the kidnapping in Algiers.

Responding to a called-in tip, police went to the corner of Broadway and Fig Street on April 20, 2009, and sent a team of cadaver-hunting dogs into a derelict house. Inside, the dogs found Phillips and Perkins, both shot to death at least 24 hours earlier.

Barnes, a convicted robber known for peddling drugs around Gert Town, told police after his arrest that he and Phillips had sold marijuana together.

Early on a Sunday morning, Phillips made a desperate call against his will, police said.

Phillips called his cousin about 2:30 a.m. and said he was being held at gunpoint. A man then grabbed the phone, saying, "If you want to see Fitzgerald alive, bring $10,000 to Club Rocafella," a Gert Town club, before hanging up, according to police.

Police linked Barnes to a home at 2526 Barracks St. in Treme, where a call to Phillips' cell phone originated shortly before the kidnapping, according to an incident report.

Officers found Phillips' 2008 Nissan Maxima less than a block away, nearly 12 hours after the kidnapping; Perkins' purse, wrapped in a white T-shirt, had been tossed in a trash can at the curb.

Inside the house they found Barnes, five other adults, three children and a five-shot .38-caliber revolver holding three live rounds.